Caesar Salad

Lunch | American

Prep time: 15 min Cook time: 20 min Servings: 2

This is my recipe for the classic Chicken caesar salad. It’s a salad i’ve made a lot of over the years, so this way is a restaurant style caesar that’s very easy to make at home.

There's three main techniques we're going to do in this recipe; cooking bacon in water, cooking chicken under a protein press (aka burger press or smasher) and making an egg and anchovy emulsion for the dressing.

Bacon in water

The bacon goes into a pan with just enough water to cover it: as the water evaporates the fat renders slowly and evenly, giving you properly flat and crispy bacon without the dry, curled result from a hot dry pan. Check out the full recipe and video for bacon cooked in water.

Chicken under protein press

The skin-on chicken breast is cooked under a protein press, which keeps the skin in constant contact with the pan for an evenly golden, properly crisped result. Both components are worth the slight extra steps.

Emulsion

An emulsion is when two liquids that wouldn't normally mix (like oil and water) are forced into a stable, combined state by a third ingredient called an emulsifier. In the Caesar dressing, the Dijon mustard acts as that emulsifier, binding the olive oil with the egg yolks so the dressing becomes thick and cohesive rather than separating into a greasy puddle.

Ingredient Notes

Anchovies: The backbone of the dressing’s savoury depth. They get mashed directly into the egg yolks and dissolve completely, so there are no discrete anchovy pieces in the finished dressing. Don’t skip them out of concern about fishiness: when incorporated this way, they taste more like seasoning than fish and are what gives a Caesar its characteristic umami punch.

Skin-on chicken breast: The skin is the most important part of the chicken here: golden and crispy from the pan, it adds both texture and flavour that skinless breast can’t replicate. Skin-on breast can be hard to find prepackaged. Your easiest option is to buy a whole chicken and carve it yourself, or ask your butcher.

Streaky bacon: Cooked starting in cold water, which allows the fat to render slowly and evenly as the liquid evaporates. The bacon ends up flat and properly crispy rather than curled and dried out. Make sure the water only just covers the bacon at the start so it evaporates fully and the bacon can finish crisping in its own rendered fat.

Equipment

Chopping board
Chef’s knife
Oven tray
Pastry brush
Medium saucepan (for eggs)
Large frying pan (for bacon and chicken)
Protein press (or heavy pan)
Wire rack
Large serving bowl
Whisk
Slotted spoon
Thermometer

Ingredients

⅓ French bread stick
1 tbsp olive oil, to drizzle
Sea salt and white pepper, to season
4 eggs, at room temperature
2 chicken breast, skin on
1 Romaine lettuce, washed
100g streaky bacon
Parmesan cheese
Dressing
2 egg yolks
3-4 anchovies
1 clove garlic
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
20g finely grated parmesan
Freshly cracked white pepper
100ml extra virgin olive oil
Juice of ½ a lemon

Directions

Cook the croutons and eggs
Preheat the oven to 180°C fan forced (355°F). Slice the French stick into 1cm thick slices and place on an oven tray in a single layer.
Brush the bread with the olive oil and season with some salt. Bake for 8-10 minutes, turning over halfway through, until golden and crisp. Set aside to cool.
Bring a medium saucepan of water to the boil over medium-high heat. Carefully lower your eggs into the water and cook at a light boil for 7 minutes.
Remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and plunge into iced water.
Cook the bacon and chicken
Place your bacon with enough water just to cover in a large frying pan and place over a medium heat.
Cook for 4-5 minutes, until the water has evaporated and fat has rendered and the bacon pulls away from the pan easily. Turn over and continue cooking on the other side. Turn the heat off and transfer the bacon to a wire rack over a tray. If once the bacon is rendered there is not enough oil in the pan, feel free to add a drizzle more to help it along.
Season the chicken with salt. When the bacon pan has cooled, add the chicken, skin side down. Turn the heat onto medium low, season the underside of the chicken with salt and pepper then place a protein press on top.
Cook the chicken for 10 minutes. Remove the protein press, then turn the chicken over and continue cooking until the internal temperature reaches 62°C (either on the stovetop or transferring the pan to the oven).
Remove the chicken from the pan and place on the wire rack with the bacon.
Make the dressing
Place the egg yolks and anchovies in the base of a large serving bowl. Mash the anchovies into the yolks with a fork, until well combined, then finely grate the garlic into the mixture.
Whisk in the Dijon and the Worcestershire sauce and mix to make an emulsion. Add the parmesan and some pepper, then continue to mix. Stir through the lemon juice, then slowly drizzle in the oil, mixing continuously.
Whisk in a little room temperature water if the dressing becomes too thick, then season to taste.
Finish and serve
Peel the eggs and slice into quarters. Chop your romaine lettuce into mouth-sized pieces.
Place the lettuce in the bowl with the dressing. Break up roughly half of the croutons and bacon over the top of the leaves.
Gently toss the salad, until everything is coated in the dressing.
Serve the dressed salad in a bowl and then garnish with the eggs cut into quarters, remaining croutons, and bacon. Then carve the chicken and place that on the top. Grate a little bit more parmesan on top and serve.

Recipe notes

Chef Tips

Start the bacon in water

Add just enough cold water to cover the bacon in the pan and put it over medium heat. As the water heats up, the fat renders slowly and evenly before the water evaporates and the bacon starts to crisp. This gives you flat, properly rendered, crispy bacon. Starting it in a dry hot pan rushes the process and you end up with uneven rendering and dry, curled strips.

Use a protein press for even skin contact

Without a press, the chicken breast arches away from the pan as it cooks and you end up with pale patches in the centre of the skin. The press keeps the skin in constant contact with the pan throughout the cook, which is how you get an evenly golden result. A heavy pan or cast iron skillet placed on top of the chicken works fine if you don’t have a dedicated press.

Make the dressing in stages

As we want the dressing to emulsify, you need to follow the steps in the recipe and not just dump everything in an mix. If you do that, you'll end up with a gluggy sauce. When you're making the dressing, if it starts to get too thick you can add in a little bit of room temp water. If it get too thick, it might split when you're adding the oil.

Storage

Once dressed, this salad wilts quickly and doesn’t keep. Dress and serve it immediately. If prepping ahead, keep all components separate: dressing in a sealed jar in the fridge for up to 3 days, croutons and bacon at room temperature, and chicken in the fridge. Toss everything together just before serving.

FAQs

Can I make the dressing ahead? Yes. The Caesar dressing keeps in a sealed jar in the fridge for up to 3 days. Bring it back to room temperature before using and give it a whisk to re-emulsify if it has separated.

How do I know when the eggs are done? This recipe uses 7-minute soft-boiled eggs for a jammy yolk. For a more runny yolk, try 5-6 minutes. For fully set, go 10 minutes. These timings assume large eggs added to already-boiling water from room temperature. Cold eggs straight from the fridge will need an extra minute.

Can I use store-bought dressing? You can, but the scratch dressing in this recipe takes about 5 minutes and uses 8 ingredients most people already have. The difference in flavour is significant. I’d strongly recommend making it from scratch, especially since the rest of the recipe is so straightforward.